Invite readers to do
more than read

By Pam Lannom

I’ve been writing a weekly opinion column for The Doings for a little more than four years. Some weeks it’s easier than others to figure out what I want to say and how I want to say it, but most weeks I truly enjoy the work.

I had no idea how many people wanted to be in my shoes.

This summer I put out a call for community columnist “wannabes.” I wrote a column telling our 21,000 subscribers I was looking for nine people who would write four columns over a nine-month period. I enticed them with a year’s free subscription to The Doings as their “pay.”

I was overwhelmed with the response. About 120 people submitted a sample column, and all but 10 or so met the deadline. Even more surprising than the volume of responses were the comments some readers included with their submissions.

“I’ve always dreamed of writing a column.”

“The columns were great fun to write.”

“I can’t imagine how much fun it will be for you to sort through the wannabes.”

“Thank you for giving amateur writers a forum in your newspaper.”

“I’m thrilled to submit a writing sample for the community column.”

“I was very excited when I saw your request for a community columnist yesterday.”

“Thank you for this opportunity to express myself.”

“I look forward to seeing the results of this contest. It should be a winner for the paper and readers.”

“What an outstanding idea!”

And my favorite -- “It felt good just to write it down.”

Obviously, including the voices of readers on a regular basis is not an idea we came up with on our own. For years I’ve heard other editors talk about the readers who write columns for their papers, and it’s something I’ve wanted to pursue for some time. I would have started sooner had I had any inkling of the positive feedback we’d receive.

I believe that feedback will translate to more readers turning to our editorial pages each week. Attracting readers to those pages isn’t something I think about every day, but fellow attendees at a National Conference of Editorial Writers workshop in Peoria this summer do. Many editorial page editors talked about how those pages compete with others in the newspaper for readership. Many think columns from readers give their opinion pages an edge.

Adding the columns did take some effort in addition to responding to all the writers and reading all the entries. We’re adding a third page to our opinion section to accommodate the new columns without losing any space for letters to the editor, and we’ve tweaked the design of the pages as well.

Not all papers can simply add an editorial page. But I think every newspaper can benefit from inviting subscribers to do more than read each issue of the paper -- by asking them to get involved. That involvement might come in the form of a column. It also could come in the form of a focus group. The involvement could be formal or informal, an ongoing project or a one-time event. It could be as complicated as setting up a permanent advisory board or as simple as remembering to ask readers what kind of a job they think we’re doing.

I had no idea how many readers wanted so much to be a part of a newspaper. I’ll bet just as many people would like to be part of yours, too.

Pam Lannom is editor of Doings Newspapers in Hinsdale. Contact her at plannom@pioneerlocal.com.

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